Typically, primary elections in off years don’t draw much interest. While it would be nice to think that voters will change that trend, the smart money says otherwise.

However, there are two interesting races that might bring out some numbers, the mayoral and city council.

Let’s begin with the mayoral. Relative unknown John Pickett has challenged incumbent Todd Barton for the mayor’s seat. Barton is in his first term after narrowly defeating then-mayor Charlie Coons by 91 votes, 1,605 to 1,514. Since taking office, the city has cleaned up the Accelplus multi-million dollar debacle, has sold the power plant and is now poised to see progress finally on the old hospital site and the Ben Hur Building.

Barton has also stepped across the aisle. He may have as much support from leading Democrats around the city as he does from Republicans. He is quick to point out that he is leading the charge to “make Crawfordsville great again.”

Pickett, on the other hand, offers very little in terms of concrete proposals and has little experience that would qualify him for the role as the CEO of the city.

The dead are buried in Newtown, Conn. In a few days, a week maybe, the media will leave town and Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary will become the latest in a line of names - Columbine, Aurora, Virginia Tech - that scar our nation's psyche and tear at our hearts . . .

Economic development is important to Montgomery County. There has been a lot published in these pages about how economic development is being carried out here.

Let us be clear. We think tax money needs to be invested in economic development. County Commissioner Phil Bane's plan to increase the amount of money allotted toward economic development by five-fold is not a bad plan. There have already been examples of businesses that have not chosen Montgomery County because there was no mechanism in place to provide quick answers. Bane's plan would fix that.

The fox is watching the henhouse, again. Or maybe, when it comes to your money, no one is watching?

At a meeting Monday, Montgomery County Commissioners expressed concern about the expense of Open Door Law information requests. Terry Hockersmith, Jim Fulwider and Phil Bane discussed a $7,907 bill the county received. According to Hockersmith, that's what it costs the county to comply with open door requests regarding Assessor Kelly Ewoldt's improper use of the county email system.